next ordered the southernmost half of his line to "refuse the line", meaning that they formed a new line at an angle to the original force, to meet the 15th Alabama's flanking maneuver. Though it endured incredible losses, the 20th Maine managed to hold through five more charges by the 15th over a ninety-minute period. Col. Oates, commanding the regiment, described the action in his memoirs, forty years later: Chamberlain's desperate charge Out of ammunition, and facing what he was sure would be yet another determined assault by the Alabamians, Col. Chamberlain decided upon a most unorthodox response: ordering his men to fix bayonets, he led what was left of his outfit in a pell-mell charge down the hill, executing a combined frontal assault and flanking maneuver that caught the 15th Alabama completely by surprise. Unbeknownst to Chamberlain, Oates had already decided to retreat, realizing that his ammunition was running low, and worried about a possible Union attack on his own flank or rear. His younger brother lay dying on the field, and the blood from his regiment's dead and wounded "was standing in puddles on some of the rocks". Hardly had Oates ordered the withdrawal than Chamberlain began his charge, which combined with fire from "B" company and the hidden sharpshooters to cause the 15th to rush madly down the hill to escape. Oates later admitted that "we ran like a herd of wild cattle" during the retreat, which took those surviving members of the 15th (including Oates) who weren't captured by Chamberlain's men up the slopes of Big Round Top and toward Confederate lines. In later years, Oates would assert that the 15th Alabama's assault had failed because no other Confederate regiment appeared in support of his unit during the attack. He insisted that if but one other regiment had joined his attack on the far left of the Union army, they would have swept the 20th Maine from the hill and turned the Union flank, "which would have forced Meade's whole left wing to retire". However, Oates also paid tribute to the courage and tenacity of his enemy when he wrote: "There never were harder fighters than the Twentieth Maine men and their gallant Colonel. His skill and persistency and the great bravery of his men saved Little Round Top and the Army of the Potomac from defeat." Chamberlain in turn extolled the bravery of his Alabama